Obama to sit for 8 local interviews on sequester

2/20/13 6:00 AM EST

President Obama will sit for interviews with eight local reporters on Wednesday, as he continues to ratchet up his pressure on lawmakers to take action to prevent automatic spending cuts from taking effect on March 1.

"The president will take the case directly to the American people in markets across the country about how their leaders in Congress must act to protect our nation from a self-inflicted wound that would hurt our recovery and the middle class," the White House said in a statement.

Picking up where he left off Tuesday with a brief speech delivered with first responders joining him on stage, Obama "will make clear that the only reason that these devastating cuts would hit is if congressional Republicans choose to protect loopholes that benefit the wealthy and big corporations rather than compromise to reduce the deficit in balanced way and protect American families."

The White House sees the interviews as an effective way to reach people across the country who don't pay much attention to national news but who do keep up with what's happening in their hometowns. It's a strategy the White House used throughout the presidential campaign and also employed in December as Obama rallied Americans to support him and to push Republicans to act as the fiscal cliff loomed.

The interviews also come at a time of tension between the White House and the beat reporters who cover the administration, as some in the press argue that the president pays too little attention to the news organizations and journalists who put large amounts of time and money into covering him.

The White House has not yet provided a list of the outlets that will be interviewing the president, but some stations and reporters have posted online about their planned interviews. Among them: KGO, the ABC affiliate in San Francisco; KITV, the ABC affiliate in Honolulu; and KFOR, the NBC affiliate in Oklahoma City. The Honolulu interview will be conducted by Yunji de Nies, who previously covered the Obama and Bush White Houses for ABC News.

In addition to focusing on local issues that will be hurt by the sequester -- as some lawmakers have begun to do -- Obama will speak broadly about his view that "congressional Democrats have put forward a balanced proposal to avert these automatic budget cuts and allow both sides to work on a long-term plan to get us on a fiscally sustainable path" and that Republicans should go along with it, the White House said.

Obama will also offer details on his "plan to put Americans back on the job building the infrastructure American business and workers need to compete in the global economy," including throughn the Fix it First and Partnership to Rebuild America programs outlined in his State of the Union address.

The president will also "announce a plan to cut federal review and permitting timelines for construction projects such as highways, bridges, railways, ports, waterways, pipelines, and renewable energy. In talking with local anchors, he will also have the opportunity to discuss specific, important projects in their communities that stand to benefit from these initiatives," the White House said.

UPDATE: In addition to the cities mentioned above, Obama will speak with reporters from Boston, Baltimore, Wichita, San Antonio and Charleston, S.C.